13 13 BOOM BOOM IS NOW A STAR (1/2)
Eghe Boom Boom became a star too. But unlike my mum who winked at me from the night sky, Boom Boom's smile shone brightly when her eyes made contact with mine. It was a happy smile. A new kind of smile. A healthy smile. Eghe Boom Boom had lived up to her word and come back home alive.
She was a star because her story had been splashed all over the news since she left for the bone marrow transplant. New Face had made that happen by going on a show on television and talking about all that had happened to our family. He was a very powerful man, and he brought all his powerful friends together in a big fundraiser at a beautiful hotel in Victoria Island. They had come to donate to the Sickle Cell Foundation and also to the fund that he had set up to pay for all Eghe Boom Boom and my dad would need since they were going to be in London for three long months.
At the fundraiser, Kompa and I performed. The audience laughed and cheered. Morenike, who had returned to Nigeria two weeks after the transplant, also spoke. It was an innocent and touching speech. She captured all the fears, concerns, doubts and the experiences of a donor. The audience was very silent as they listened and when she was done, a lot of them were crying. People gave a lot of money that night, and some of them put their names down on a list that the Sickle Cell Foundation had at the fundraiser. At the end of the fundraiser, people came up to Kompa and I and they hugged us and said sweet words of comfort and support to us. Kompa barked, whined, I translated and the people oohed, ahhed and laughed.
When I got back home that night, I spoke with my dad over the phone and told him all about it. He was happy about what had happened and told me that he and Eghe Boom Boom would be returning soon. The news thrilled me to no end as I had missed both of them a lot. Later that night, I went to the back of the house and told my mum about it all as she winked down at me from the sky. Then I went to bed, and the last thought I had before I fell asleep was of Eghe Boom Boom and as usual, the last person I thought about was the person I dreamt of.
My dad, Eghe Boom Boom, Kompa and I went to a house in a huge estate where the very rich people lived. One of my dad's friends lived there, and it was because of him that they had let us into the estate. In this estate, the houses were big and beautiful. They had well-mowed lawns and pruned flower hedges. There were no fences around them, unlike other houses in Lagos. Instead, there were just paved driveways that led to the garages and front door.
My dad followed us slowly in his car on the street, while we knocked on doors, delivering pamphlets on sickle cell anaemia and educating the people who opened their doors to us about the disease.
We finally got to a big house. It was the biggest house on the street. We walked up the driveway and got to the door on which was a huge metal knocker. Our hands couldn't reach it, so we pressed the doorbell and waited. It took a short while before the door slowly opened, and a woman in a colourful gown emerged. She was wearing eyeglasses and her hair was grey. She looked kind and was smiling.
”Hello,” she said with a voice that sounded like she was singing.
”Good afternoon, ma,” Eghe Boom Boom replied with a wide smile.
”How can I help you?”
”My name is Eghosa Osagie. You can call me Eghe Boom Boom.”
”Eghe Boom Boom, I like the sound of that name.”
”Thank you, ma.”
”You are welcome.”
”I used to suffer from sickle cell anaemia, but I no longer have it, because I was lucky to find a donor who was a match with me.”
”Oh my! I am glad you are doing okay. My grandson is suffering from it too.”
”I am so sorry to hear that, ma. How is he doing?”
”Not too well, I must tell you. But how come you both are here? Where are your parents?”
”Our dad is in the car,” I said as I pointed to my dad who sat in the car across the street.
The lady looked across at the car, and my dad waved.
She smiled and waved back to him, and then she turned back to Eghe Boom Boom. ”How were you healed from the disease?”
”I did a bone marrow transplant. Now I am well and healthy like my brother here and no longer afraid of dying early.”
”A bone marrow transplant?”
”Yes.”
”I have heard about that before. It is used for some other diseases, but I didn't know it could be used for sickle cell anaemia.”
”Everyday research is going on around the world to cure the disease, ma, that is why we need people like you to help support the scientists who have dedicated their lives to finding a cure.”
”It is good to see a lovely girl like you doing what you can to help find a cure. Knowledge is what we need, and you are spreading it, so bless you love. If I knew what I now know, I wouldn't have allowed my daughter to marry her husband. At that time we didn't know their genotype and we didn't encourage them to check before marriage. Genetic counselling. For me and my husband when we married, no one knew anything about sickle cell anaemia. In fact, when you married then and had children who died early after falling sick repeatedly, people called them Ogbanje. You know what that means?”
”Yes, children who live in a magical world and come to this world over and over again to the same father and mother. Each time they come, they can decide anytime to return back to the magical world, and when they do, they first fall ill before they die and when they are ready to come back to this world, they come back by being born to the same father and mother they had the last time they died,” I answered.
”Impressive. Who told you about them?”
”My mum. She told us about a lot of things.”
”And, where is she?”
”She is a winking star up in the sky, looking down at us.”
”Oh…” she appeared confused as she looked at me.
”Our mum is dead now. She died after a crisis,” Eghe Boom Boom spoke with a firm voice after giving me a quick disapproving look. She had told me to stop telling people that our mum was a star because although our ages were still five and eight, we were no longer kids and people expected us not to say childish things anymore. I did not agree with her since I wanted to still hold on to everything our mum had said to me that day on the bed.
”I am so sorry about that. Your mum must have been an incredible lady to have raised two smart children like yourselves.”
Kompa barked twice and whined.
The woman looked down at Kompa and said.
”Oh, sorry. Is everything okay?”
”He just said that my mum raised three kids and not two. He is the third kid.”
She looked at Kompa for a moment, her brow creased and then back at us before she said, ”Your dog talks?”
”He is my brother, and yes, he talks.”
She hesitated for a while as she looked down at Kompa, then she said, ”Impressive.”
She bent down, stroked Kompa's head and asked him, ”Young man, what is your name?”
Kompa barked twice.
”What did he say?” the woman asked me.
”He said his name is Kompa,” I replied.
”Kompa. Lovely name. Glad to meet you, Kompa,” she extended her hand to rub Kompa's head but Kompa lifted a paw and placed it in her hand before he barked thrice.
”He says he is happy to meet you too.”
The woman laughed loudly, let go of Kompa's paws, stood up and turned to us. ”You know, when I was young like you guys, I used to hear animals speak - the birds in the air, the dogs on the road, the goats and the cows, the frogs, the crickets and the mosquitoes, the flies, and even the earthworms. But when I told my parents, they thought I was crazy. In fact, my mother would flog me anytime I said so. I would lie on the bed and cry because I felt so lonely since I couldn't share it with anyone. I started forcing myself not to understand what animals said because I didn't want my mother to be angry with me. I would tell the animals not to speak to me. I didn't want to hear them. And one day, I woke up and I couldn't understand them anymore. To be honest, I was sad that I couldn't hear them again, but as long as my mother didn't have to flog me, I could care less about losing my ability to hear them speak, so much so that I completely forgot about it. But now you have brought it back to me and I realise how much I miss it and how lucky I was to have that gift of hearing. Does your father know you can hear Kompa speak?”
”Yes,” I said.
”And what does he say?”
”He didn't believe at first, nor did my mum, but after a while they did, and they became cool with it. But other people still don't really believe until they see him do things and then they change their mind.”
”You are so lucky and blessed. I wished I had the same kind of parents you have.”
Then she fell silent as her eyes took on the look of someone who was daydreaming. We stood there looking at her, then she came out of her daydream and looked over at Eghe Boom Boom and said, ”I am so sorry, my love. It was rude of me to have interrupted you. Please, what were you saying?”
”It is okay,” Eghe Boom Boom said, smiling before she continued sweetly after she handed over one of the pamphlets to the woman. ”As I said, ma, we have come here today to speak to you about the sickle cell disease which affects a lot of people. I'm sure you know this since you said your grandson is also a warrior.”
”A warrior?” the woman raised her brow.
”Yes, ma,” Eghe Boom Boom replied.
”I like that,” the woman said, smiling.
”Yes, people who suffer from the disease are warriors. They fight a war that they did not start, but this is a war that has to end. A lot of them are dying, the young, the old, boys, girls, and even parents too. But they will not die if there are people who are willing to register at the bone marrow registry at the Sickle Cell Foundation as donors. Please ma, will you help to save a life from dying from the sickle cell anaemia by volunteering to be a donor?”
She looked at us silently for a while. I could feel her thinking. Then she broke out in an even wider smile and said, ”I think I would do something even better than that. Do you want to know what I will do?”
”Yes, ma,” Eghe Boom Boom and I said in unison.
”Do you know what a trust fund is?” she asked.
”No ma,” we answered again in unison.
”Okay, I will tell you what it is, and make my explanation simple so that you would understand it.”
”It is okay, ma. Even if it is complicated, we will still understand it.”
”Hmm. Someone is very confident.”
”We are smart,” I said.
”Don't listen to him, ma, he is full of himself. Please, make it simple if you want to.” Eghe Boom Boom said with a smile.
”Okay,” the woman said, paused for a moment as she collected her thoughts, then she continued. ”A trust fund is money that you give to someone to keep for another person so that they can release that money to that person when you want them to, even if you are no longer alive. Do you understand?”
”Yes. You mean a trust fund is a transfer of money from one person to another through a third person who makes sure they get the money in the exact way and manner which you want the person who should get the money, gets it,” I said.
She smiled and turned to Eghe Boom Boom, ”And do you understand it, young lady?”
”Yes. It's like my mum gave money to my aunty and told her to give us the money every month when we start going to university.”
The woman smiled even broader and turned to Kompa, ”Does Kompa understand it too?”
Kompa barked thrice and growled. I translated. ”He said a trust fund is like food that used to be given to our former maid by our mum to feed him, whether she was at home or not.”
The woman laughed loudly and said, ”My lord, you are all so precious. So, yes, I will start a trust fund and make the Sickle Cell Foundation the people who benefit from it. So, any time there is someone who needs to do a bone marrow transplant, the trust fund will pay for it. Actually, it will pay for the whole transplant for the first twenty people in a year, half for the next twenty people, and a quarter for the next twenty people. That means there will be sixty people with sickle cell anaemia the trust fund will help every year if they can get a donor. Now, what do you think about that?”
Eghe Boom Boom and I stood there staring at her in shock as her words played in our heads. It was when Kompa barked thrice and whined that we came out of our shock. His tail was wagging and he was prancing about in excitement.
The woman looked down at Kompa and asked, ”What did he say?”
”He says the trust fund rocks,” I translated.
”And what do you both say?” she asked again.
”It is really cool. Thank you so much, ma,” I said as what she truly meant by the trust fund sunk in.
She turned to Eghe Boom Boom, but before she could talk, Eghe Boom Boom ran to her, hugged her tight and broke out in tears.
The woman hugged Eghe Boom Boom and stroked her hair slowly as she said, ”It's okay, my love, there is a reason why God kept you alive and led you to my doorstep today.”
Then the woman looked over at me as Eghe Boom Boom kept crying and said, ”Go tell your dad to come over so I can discuss the details of the trust fund with him.”
I ran over to my dad in rising excitement, with Kompa at my heels. My dad looked at me in concern as I approached.
”Dad, she wants to cure sixty warriors a year with a trust fund!” I called out to him.
”What?” my dad called back to me in confusion.
I stopped and called out to him, ”She wants to see you,” I said, pointing back to the woman who was still hugging Eghe Boom Boom as she cried.
My dad came out of the car, shut the door and walked towards me.
”What did you say?” he asked me again when he got closer.
”A trust fund for bone marrow transplants,” I said.
My dad stopped. He was surprised. He stared at me and then at the woman.
An hour later, after the woman had discussed the details with my dad and exchanged phone numbers with him, we stepped out of the house and walked towards the car, the woman and my dad in front and the rest of us following a short distance behind.
Kompa barked as he said to me, ”Didn't I tell you that everything will be okay?”
Before I could respond, Eghe Boom Boom turned and said to Kompa, ”Yes, you did Kompa.
Remember you told me the same thing that day before we left for the airport on our way to London.”
I stopped walking and stared at Eghe Boom Boom in shock. She stopped walking and looked back at me.
”What?” she asked.
”You can hear Kompa speaking?”
”Yes,” she responded.
”Since when?” I asked, still in shock.
”When I woke up at the hospital. Mummy made me hear him because I said I wanted to be just like you, but only smarter.”
”Why didn't you tell me?”
”Because a girl needs to have her secrets, but now, I guess it is no longer a secret. Don't feel cool with yourself though, because I have other secrets that you can never ever know until I want you to know.”
I turned to Kompa as he stood there staring at me.